Regulatory Duplication on Display at an Average American Seafood Facility:

Witness how the USDA catfish inspection regime is clearly a duplicative waste of taxpayer dollars. The tour of this U.S. operation is one that could be repeated in every state in the union. This costly waste impacts American businesses and jobs where you live.

Who’s opposed to the USDA Catfish Inspection Program?

The White House:

The USDA Catfish Inspection program has a virtual army opposed to it. From a bipartisan cadre in the House and Senate, to a who’s who in the world of American agriculture. Experts in public health, public policy, economics, trade and regulation have called for the repeal of the program that does not improve food safety but does cost American jobs and wastes American tax dollars.

Government Accountability Office

Nine times the GAO has targeted this program as part of its effort to get rid of waste, fraud and abuse.

“Responsibility for Catfish should not be assigned to USDA.” (May 2012)

Repealing the USDA catfish inspection program “would avoid duplication of federal programs and could save taxpayers millions of dollars annually without affecting the safety of catfish intended for human consumption.”13 GAO-13-279SP, Page 34)2014

Agriculture Groups/Companies

Cargill Grocery Manufacturers Association Hormel Foods National Council of Farmer Coops National Meat Association National Milk Producers Federation National Oilseed Processors Association National Pork Producers Council National Restaurant Association National Turkey Federation Retail Industry Leaders Association Smithfield Foods United States Dairy Export Council United States Grains Council United States Meat Export Federation USA Poultry and Egg Export Council Western Growers Association United States Meat Export Federation American Meat Institute Food and Agriculture Export Alliance Seaboard Foods American Soybean Association National Restaurant Association Food Marketing Institute

“The change in catfish inspection requirement is not justified.”

“The catfish rule could easily be seen by foreign exporting nations as such an unjustifiable trade barrier. The U.S. has and continues to successfully remove non-science-based and other unjustifiable barriers that negatively affect U.S. agricultural exports. Implementing such a rule has the potential to weaken future U.S. efforts if it is perceived as engaging in the same type of activity.”

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives

Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO)“I am working to end wasteful and duplicative programs like the catfish inspection regime.”

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
“Unless we act, not only will this initiative continue to waste millions of tax dollars, it will also split seafood inspection responsibilities between two different federal agencies, undermine our food safety system and put consumers at risk.”

04/12/2013

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)“If there were legitimate food safety reasons for having USDA inspect catfish, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) (6.14.12)“It serves no public interest, it’s costly for taxpayers, it’s duplicative … and, as a result, will invite trade retaliation and put us in a train wreck of regulatory conflict.”

“Consistent with the support of the full Senate to eliminate the program during last year’s Farm Bill consideration, we request that you ensure this year’s Farm Bill repeals the USDA catfish inspection program.”

The US-China Business Council “…the United States should be reluctant to impose regulations that have questionable scientific basis. Doing so opens the door to our trading partners imposing similar regulations on US exports.” “…we urge you to weigh in with Congress on the Administration’s objections to the implementation of the catfish inspection program and support its repeal as part of the Farm Bill. “

Emergency Committee for American Trade
“U.S. exporters of food and agricultural products have fought against scientifically unfounded non-tariff barriers to their exports for years, and this program sets a poor precedent for American leadership in that regard. It should, therefore, be repealed. ”

Congressional Research Service“Retaliation measures could include restrictions on imports of U.S. agricultural products, which in the case of China and Vietnam, two major exporters of ‘catfish’ to the United States, were $20 billion and $1.6 billion, respectively, in 2011.”

James Bacchus, former chief judge on the highest WTO Court of Appeals and former Member of the Congress.“… there is nothing ‘disguised’ about this protectionism.”
“Because WTO litigation is intensely fact-specific…we are always reluctant to express definitive opinion about a possible case in a preliminary assessment. This case, however, stands on somewhat different ground… In our view, Vietnam would have a very strong WTO case against the United States.”

Sherzod Abdukadirov, Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center“Beyond limiting competition— which raises prices for consumers — the USDA’s program is a waste of money.”

United States Ambassadors

Douglas “Pete” PetersonU.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, 1997 to 2001 and former POW“Either the United States is a trusted trading partner who adheres to agreed upon rules or is a country that engages in linguistic gymnastics to say one thing but do another.”

Michael W. MarineU.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, 2004 to 2007“Our actions should reflect our commitments and follow sound science rather than the narrow interests of a small minority.”

Food Safety Experts

Even USDA’s own risk assessment experts question this program
“The CDC consider commercially raised catfish to be a low risk-food.”“There is substantial uncertainty regarding the actual effectiveness of an FSIS catfish inspection program.”
“This probability incorporates the prevalence of Salmonella-contaminated catfish servings and suggests salmonellosis from consuming a serving of catfish is an uncommon event.”“Sparse information limits [USDA’s] ability to make strong statements about the baseline risk.”“Also, the rate at which FSIS inspection will achieve its ultimate reductions is unknown.”“The true effectiveness of FSIS inspection for reducing catfish-associated human illnesses is unknown.”

Dr. Richard Raymond, Former USDA Food Safety Czar“Too bad so many dollars were wasted on this foolishness.”

USDA Office of Inspector General; does USDA need yet another product to oversee when it can’t even keep up with its current inspection regime?The agency already; “has had difficulty maintaining sufficient inspection staff to accomplish its mission.”

Richard Williams, Director of policy research at the Mercatus Center“…it is unlikely that catfish presents any significant risk to anyone.”